Romans 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life. I. THERE IS SOMETHING VERY SOLEMN IN THAT WORD, "THE END!" (Proverbs 23:18). What of our end? Look around you and see the speculations, the anxieties, the labours of the men of this world — they all will have an end; see men of pleasure, living for pleasure — the laughter, the songs, the entertainments and revellings will all have an end; and this world will have an end. Every day, every journey, every conflict, every life has an end. What of our end? It is sure; the end will come, and it may be very near. "Oh, that we were wise, that we did consider our latter end." Yet death is not the end of you. The dust will return to the earth whence it came, but the spirit will have gone to God who gave it — whether clothed in the righteousness and washed in the blood of Christ, or not, is the solemn question. II. But the text speaks of THE BELIEVER'S END. The end of his pilgrimage, his conflict, his prayers, his faith; "receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls," or as it is here expressed, "everlasting life." Who can fully comprehend the subject? Life is the perfection of being, and everlasting life is the perfection of life. All that the love of God can bestow, all that the blood of Christ can procure, all that the indwelling Holy Ghost can enable us to enjoy, this is everlasting life — the fruition of the fruit of all the travail of Christ's soul, the enjoyment of all the fulness of God, everlastingly to behold His glory, to be assimilated to Christ, to have mortality swallowed up of life — this is "everlasting life." The consummation of all possible privileges, the fulfilment of all Divine promises, the issue of all God's purposes, God's rest of love. How small the world looks in contrast with such an end, and what a poor consolation will it be for any of us to have attained even the whole world, if we lose it. (M. Raisford.) Parallel Verses KJV: But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. |
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